


Stuck in the Middle (With You)

by SpaceWaffleHouseTM



Series: One Shots from the Waffle House [8]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A LOT OF FLIRTY BANTER, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Ben Solo, Bonding Over Dumb Shit, Dry Humping, F/M, Fluff and Smut, New York Blackout 2019, New York City, Panic Attacks, Slight Smut, Trapped together trope, flirty banter, stuck in an elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-08 01:23:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19861234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWaffleHouseTM/pseuds/SpaceWaffleHouseTM
Summary: On her way to a work meeting, Rey gets trapped in an elevator when the power goes out over the part of New York City she's staying in, throwing the lift into pitch blackness. Luckily the deep-voiced stranger sharing the space with her is good company, but is he just good for a laugh or is it possible there's more to him than meets the... ears?





	Stuck in the Middle (With You)

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's been four days since that blackout but... I wanted to give this idea the attention and care it deserved, and if you were actually trapped in an elevator during the blackout, I am so sorry.

Nothing was keeping Rey awake. Not the strongest coffee in the state of New York nor the largest can of Redbull the nearest grocery store carried. There must’ve been enough caffeine to kill pumping through her veins, and her heart was thudding so hard in her chest she could  _ feel  _ it. 

Somehow, it was working at least a little bit. She was still  _ standing _ , after all. In fact, she was  _ walking _ down a well-lit hallway in the hotel she would be staying in for the next four nights—whether she passed out on the job or not. New York may have been the city that never sleeps, but Rey certainly needed to. 

Alas, sleep wouldn’t be a possibility until after she attended this stupid fucking meeting three blocks down the street from her hotel. Once that was done, she could flee to the comfort of her bed, take off her tight, business clothes, and sleep like the dead.  _ Until six the next morning.  _

A groan escaped her as she walked up to the lift, pressing the down button with a scowl on her face before stepping back to check the time on her phone. Fifteen minutes remained until she had to be at her meeting, and much to her dismay, her battery was at two percent.  _ Fuck _ . She couldn’t go through a meeting with two percent battery, her phone would be dead by the time she finished, and she didn’t know her way around the city. She’d been in America for five years now, sure, but she’d been living in Philadelphia. 

New York had always been a place that she’d never had the time to visit… up until her job demanded it. 

There was no time to charge her phone before leaving. She’d have to find someone to charge it for her at the meeting, or pray that some angel magically appeared before her and blessed the damned thing with a full battery. Doing good things had to earn her some kind of reward, didn’t it?

Above her, a light came on, accompanying an old-fashioned dinging sound as the doors to the lift opened, and she sighed with an odd mixture of relief and disappointment.  _ At least she’d be able to get this over with.  _

Without making another sound, Rey stepped into the lift, and pressed the button for the ground floor. Her eyes still struggled to remain open as the doors closed, and she leaned against the wall closing her eyes as it moved down. Almost immediately her body began preparing itself for sleep even though she was standing upright. She couldn’t keep her eyes open, and she felt her head lolling back against the wall, but she didn’t care. The rest felt so nice, so good, she barely even noticed when she stopped on another floor, and someone else with lumbering footsteps—matching what was no doubt a rather large frame, probably someone tall and broad by the sound of it—walked in. 

The stranger that had joined her on the lift muttered some kind of greeting, which she returned with a vague grunt before allowing herself to fall further into her almost-sleep. A few seconds later, the lift moved again, and they went down a few more floors before she finally got the cure for her drowsiness. 

It came in the form of a sudden jolt, then the lights that had been shining through her closed eyelids shut off, throwing the room into pitch blackness just as she opened her eyes. Rey gasped from shock as the stranger in the lift with her swore loudly, and clutched a hand to her chest from fright as she stood up straight.  _ What the fuck? _

A few seconds went by where she held her breath, and waited patiently for the lights to come back on and the lift to move. Surely it would start up again in a minute, right? As the seconds ticked by, though, she started to doubt it. 

“You afraid of heights?” the deep, American accented voice of the stranger asked from a few feet away, interrupting her frightened train of thought before it could properly take off. 

“Excuse me?”

“We’re still twenty floors up, so I need to know,” he repeated, then she heard him step closer. “Are you scared of heights?”

Rey scoffed, but it wasn’t aggressive as she turned her head in the vague, general direction his voice was coming from. “Isn’t everyone?” she asked sarcastically, earning a dry chuckle from the stranger. “ _ Fuck _ , I’m going to be late.”

“Me too. Work meeting?”

“Yeah. What about you?” 

“Same thing, and last I checked it was in…” A few shuffling noises, the sound of cloth against cloth, and a zipper being undone and redone consecutively. “ _ Fuck,  _ where is it?”

“Missing your phone?”

“Yeah.” He sighed defeatedly, and she heard a faint scratching noise. Perhaps he was scratching his head? Running his hands through his hair? She had no clue. All light sources were gone. There wasn’t even light from whatever hallway she knew lay beyond those doors, or an emergency light that their eyes could adjust to. Everything that could be dead, was. “You have yours?”

She nodded, then realized he couldn’t see her. “Yeah, it might be dead, though.”

“Worth a try.”

“Guess so,” she replied, then she reached into the pocket of her blazer, and grabbed her phone with two fingers before sliding it back into her palm. A smile started to form on her face, but it quickly faded once she realized the device wasn’t turning on. When it did, all it gave her was the little symbol that begged her to plug the damn thing into a charger. “Or maybe not.”

“Dead battery?”

“Yep.”

“Fuck.”

“Mmm, my thoughts exactly,” she replied, then she fell back against the wall again, the sound loud in the tiny space. 

“What  _ was _ that?”

“What was what?”

“That noise.”

“What noise?”

“The banging,” he replied, then she heard the same noise come from his side of the lift, and realized what he was referring to. “ _ Oh _ .”

She snorted her laughter, then she stood up again, and put her hands out in front of her, walking forward until she felt the cool steel of the lift beneath her palms. “You said we’re twenty floors up?”

“Just about.”

“Shit,” she breathed, then she began feeling for the little space between the doors that would allow her to open them. “Mind helping me with these?”

“With what?”

“The doors, um… what’s your name?”

The stranger shuffled forward, and she felt a warm, enormous palm press into hers, causing them both to gasp before tearing their hands away. “Shit, sorry,” he muttered, then she heard him run his hand through his hair, which took him a good second or two. Whoever was next to her, he had some length to his hair, but how much she could only begin to guess. “Um… I’m Ben.”

“Rey,” she replied, then she laughed nervously. “I’d shake your hand, but—“

“You can’t see it?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, I figured.” He let out another sigh then, and she heard his palm make gentle contact with the steel door. “Let’s find that opening again, hmm?”

She nodded, wincing again when she remembered he couldn’t see her. “Let’s.”

With that began the most awkward fumbling of Rey’s life, and that even eclipsed the first date she’d ever gone on in school. That night, she’d sat in the back seat of his shitty Corolla and made out with her date while he attempted to put his hands just about everywhere. In fairness, she’d done the same, but they’d both been so agonizingly awkward that she’d called it quits claiming illness and run home. 

In the present, their hands were simply rushing all over each other, and it felt like an eternity of almost uncomfortable yet slightly sensual little hand touches passed by before either of them found the doors. When they finally did, Rey would’ve sworn she could’ve fainted with relief, but said joy was short lived when they quickly realized the doors wouldn’t budge. “Oh you’re kidding me,” she hissed as they finally gave up. 

“We’re really stuck here,” Ben breathed, then she heard him take a few steps back from the door, and a slight smacking sound followed. Skin on skin. His head was in his hands. “Oh,  _ shit _ .”

Rey shook her head, forcing herself to remain positive. There had to be a way out. There had to be. Perhaps through the rooftop hatch on the ceiling, but she highly doubted it. If the doors on the floor they were stuck on wouldn’t open, what were the odds the doors on the next one would? She bet they were slim. 

Behind her, she could hear Ben’s breathing growing fast, and she knew that sign well. He was having a panic attack, or at the bare minimum was in some state of panic. Sympathy flooded through her as she too turned around, feeling out in front of her for the other wall, and luckily finding it instead of him. “Ben?”

“I—I’m afraid of heights, too,” he replied, then she heard him take another, chest heaving breath. “We’re twenty floors up. If the cables fail—“

“They won’t. If we were going to fall to our deaths, we would’ve done it by now,” she assured him, then she heard more heavy breathing, and took in a deep one of her own to force herself to stay calm. It would do them no good to have two panic attacks. “Where are you?”

“What?”

“Keep talking, I’m trying to find you.”

“Why?”

“Ben, you’re having a panic attack, aren’t you?”

“...yes.”

Rey stepped in his general direction, and reached out a hand into the pitch black. “Listen, I’m gonna have to touch you to find you. Is that okay?”

A pause, then, “Yeah, it’s fine.” The sound of fabric fluttering—perhaps fanning himself with his shirt?—then fabric on fabric before he stood still. “Go ahead.”

Without saying another word, Rey moved slowly forward, and waved her hand in the air until it connected with something that had a soft covering over a hard, smooth plane.  _ Shit _ , her lift companion was  _ muscular.  _ Of course he was, of fucking course he was. Sure, his voice was sexy, but that didn’t mean the rest of him had to be. “Hi.”

“Hey.”

“This is kind of weird.” Small giggles escaped them both, and Rey dared to step closer, but left her foot on the ground the entire time. This whole thing was awkward enough without stepping on him. 

“Yeah, tell me about it,” he replied, and already his breathing was slowing to a normal—or at least passable—rate after a bit of laughter. “I can’t even see you.”

“And I have no idea what you look like.” She slid her hand up to his shoulder, ignoring the way his breath hitched from the contact. “We’re sitting here, in the pitch black, we know nothing about each other, and I’m-I’m touching you.”

“That’s pretty fucking weird.” He shifted beneath her touch, then she felt him move down. “I’m gonna sit.”

“Me too,” she said with a groan. “These heels are killing me and I don’t know how long we’ll be stuck like this.”

They fell quiet for another moment, and Rey’s hand fell down from his shoulder as she sat down beside him, and the two let out sighs of relief that they were no longer on their feet. The sound felt almost a bit intimate in such a confined space with someone she’d only just met, and more awkward chuckling ensued. “Hi.”

“Hey.”

“We have to stop doing that,” he said, and they both only laughed harder. Once they came down from their laughter, though, she heard his breath leave him in a rush of air. It wasn’t quite a sigh, but it wasn’t exactly a normal exhale. “But we do know at least a few things about one another.”

“Like what?”

“You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Nah, London, born and raised. What about you? You’re clearly American. Where are you from?”

“South of Chicago, the really rural part of Illinois only truck drivers fuck with. Mom drove for Pepsi, dad for some chicken nugget company. It was love at first rest stop.”

At his phrasing, Rey began to fucking  _ chortle.  _ Not laugh, not giggle, not chuckle, but full body, stomach aching, gut shifting, face cinching  _ chortle _ . She fell back against the wall, clutching her gut from how much it hurt to laugh as the sound fucking echoed against the wall. When was the last time she laughed like this? Had it been when her only two work friends, Finn and Poe had pulled the prank of the century—really just seran wrap against a doorframe—or had it been when the same duo had argued for half an hour over who’d drank the last cup of coffee in the break room when it was her? It had been too long, and so with only this complete stranger beside her, she allowed herself to laugh. 

“Are you okay?” she heard Ben ask a moment later, his voice full of concern. 

“Yeah, fine.” Wiping a tear from her eye, Rey managed one more half-assed chuckle before she finally came down from her euphoric fit. “I just—I haven’t had cause to laugh like that in a long time.”

There was a pause, then she heard him shift, and felt a warmth by her hand where it rested by the ground. He was close, but not quite enough to touch her, which she found unexpectedly disappointing. Did she want him to touch her? _ Why  _ did she want him to touch her? The reason evaded her, but she still had the question lingering at the forefront of her mind. “Well, that’s a shame.” 

“Why?”

“You have a nice laugh.”

“...  _ shut up. _ ”

“I’m serious! It’s a nice laugh.” He managed a light-hearted scoff, sounding almost like a laugh as he shifted even closer to her, then she felt his fingertips press against hers. Almost immediately, though, he took them away, and she mourned the loss of his warmth. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be, I don’t mind it.” A shrug lifted her shoulders even though he couldn’t see her, and she winced as she realized this. “We can’t see each other. Touch and sound are all we have.”

“And taste. And smell. Nice perfume, by the way.”

“Oh, thanks, it’s Dior.”

“Mine too, but it’s cologne.”

Trying desperately not to be creepy, Rey sniffed the air to try and gauge exactly how Ben smelled—and god, that felt like a weird thing to do—and found that she rather enjoyed the scent lingering in the air. He smelled masculine and clean, like he’d just stepped out of the shower not five minutes ago, and  _ fuck  _ that sent her mind places. She’d thought a minute ago that he might have longer hair than most men, and now she couldn’t stop wondering if he  _ had  _ just showered and it was now darkened and shiny from the water that had just been running over it. If he preferred his water temperature—

_ Stop it.  _ She really didn’t need to be wondering this about a complete stranger. What would Ben say if he knew about her train of thought? He’d probably take his chances with the rooftop hatch and ignore her until the power returned. 

“It’s nice,” she told him, gathering her wits as she attempted to erase any potentially creepy thoughts about him from her mind. 

“Thanks. So… you don’t mind me touching you?”

“I was touching you a minute ago.”

“Yeah, but I was having a panic attack.”

“Maybe  _ I’m  _ having a panic attack.”

At this, he actually did muster a small laugh, and she noticed that she rather enjoyed the sound of it as his hand drifted back toward hers, and covered it completely in its warmth. “Well, I can't refuse you then, can I?”

“No, that’d be rather rude of you,” she reminded him sarcastically, then she felt his fingers curl beneath hers, and she responded in kind. “And you have a nice laugh, too.”

“You’ve barely heard it.”

“It’s still nice.”

Another laugh. “Alright, just let me know when I’ve been holding this for too long.” He squeezed her hand on ‘this,’ and they both giggled softly as if they were children sharing secrets on the playground. 

“I don’t know, Ben.” She sighed in mock sadness, and a grin blossomed on her face that he couldn’t see. “I might be having a panic attack until the power comes back on.”

“That could be a while.”

“I have long panic attacks.”

More laughter ensued, and those walls she always put up around strangers until she grew comfortable with them began to fall down. It was strange; she didn’t even know what he looked like and he probably didn’t remember what  _ she  _ looked like, but they’d fallen into a sort of camaraderie with one another already. The whole thing did make her wonder just what he looked like, though, and so she stretched out her legs in front of her, crossing one over the other as she got herself situated before finding the courage to ask him. “So what do you look like?”

“What do I look like?”

“Yeah, I’m curious.” She squeezed his hand. “You have huge fucking hands so I’m guessing you’re tall. You’ve got to be at least six foot one.”

“I’m six foot two.”

“Damn, I’m five foot seven,” she said, then she thought up her next question. “Alright, what about the rest of you? Eye color, hair color, glasses or no glasses, that sort of thing?”

“Eye color? Brown, pretty basic. Um, I’ve got dark hair, almost black, kinda wavy I guess.”

“Is it long?”

“ _ What?! _ ” he practically squeaked. 

“Your  _ hair, _ ” she repeated with a breathy laugh. “Is your hair long?”

“Uh… yeah, yeah, it’s longish. Goes a bit above my shoulders.”

“Facial hair?”

“Not at the moment, no.” The sound of him swallowing—presumably out of nervousness—followed. “Why? What’s your preference?”

“Clean shaven. Easy.”

She felt him shrug. “Fair. And no on the glasses question. Got lucky, have twenty twenty vision.”

“Oh, you suck.”

“Why?” If she looked at him right then, she’d bet the bastard was grinning. “Do you wear glasses?”

She didn’t, but her contact lenses were far too expensive for her own good. “Nope, contacts, but it’s a bit unfair that you can open your eyes and just…  _ see _ .”

Another shrug. “Some people are naturally gifted.”

“Oh, you suck, you suck  _ so much _ .”

Laughter, then she felt him shift closer, and his arm was soon pressing up against hers, making her shiver as she felt his warmth radiating onto her skin. “But now it’s my turn to ask questions. What do  _ you _ look like?”

“Hmm, let’s see…” She tapped her chin for dramatic effect, then put her hand down. “Um, hazel eyes… also brown hair, though I don’t think mine’s quite as dark as yours is. Uh, definitely no facial hair.” They both shared a laugh. “But I’ve got freckles. Price of tanning easily.”

“Not to be too forward or anything, but you sound… kind of beautiful.”

A blush crept up her cheeks, and she’d never been more grateful for the dark. It certainly allowed her a bit more courage than she thought she’d have otherwise. “Thanks. You don’t sound bad yourself.”

His initial response was a scoff, and not one that sounded like it would be followed by laughter. “You wouldn’t say that if you saw me.” Then his voice grew somber, almost making him sound miserable as it took them both to the past. “Sorry, I just—I used to get made fun of all the time growing up.”

“What the fuck? I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine, I’ve just—I've got all these weird features and they—they don’t work.” A nervous sounding laugh escaped him. “But I’m sure you don’t want to hear about all that shit, right?”

Rey stayed quiet for a second, then she placed a hand over the ones they had joined, and leaned against him. “Actually, I kind of want to know everything, if you’re willing to tell me it, that is.”

“Really?” He sounded so hopeful, and Rey could tell it had been far too long since he’d heard such a thing. Had anyone ever cared enough to ask this man about his life? “Of all the things we could talk about, that’s what you want to know?”

“Yeah. I want to get to know you,” she said, then she laughed dryly. “It’s not like we have anything better to do. We can’t get out and this thing doesn’t seem like it’s gonna move anytime soon.”

“Fair. Okay, let’s ask each other questions. We’ll take turns. I’ll start.”

“Alright, what do you want to know?”

“Favorite color?”

“Really? You’re starting with favorite color?”  _ God _ , she wished he could see her face. If he could get a  _ glimpse  _ of the way her eyebrows had raised, she’d pay money to see the shame on his face. 

Ben hummed his assent. “Basic, I know. But tell me anyway.”

“Blue,” she managed to say with an accompanying snicker. “What’s yours then?”

“Red. Next question—“

“Wait, no fair, I haven’t asked mine yet!”

“You asked me what my favorite color was.”

“Oh, you’re a little shit, aren’t you?”

“It would seem so,” he replied, then he shifted, and she felt the fabric of his slacks glide along the skin of her leg as he stretched his legs out in front of them. “So… what’s your favorite movie?”

They talked like that for a while. Initially, they asked dumb questions that even children would use to bond, but as time passed, they started to grow closer. It felt like she knew more about him than she knew about some of her “close” friends from work or around town. That was both frightening and wonderful at the same time, but she didn’t have long to think about it as the questions they asked one another grew raunchier and more flirty. 

“Wildest place you’ve ever had sex?” Rey asked, feeling a bit bold once they’d gotten the basics out of the way. 

“Sex or just any sexual encounter?”

“... please elaborate.”

“Once I was on the observation deck in the Empire State Building—“

“ _ No. _ ”

“ _ Yes. _ ”

“What the  _ fuck _ did you do?” she asked incredulously, unable to help the hand that had fallen over her mouth from shock. 

“I was on a fucking tinder date right when the app was first starting out. We were bored. He was hot. I was nineteen and on my first vacation without my parents.” Ben shrugged. “So we found somewhere out of sight and started grinding. There were hands everywhere. It’s a miracle we didn’t get caught.”

Her eyebrows raised. “ _ He _ ?” Shit, was Ben gay? Had she been flirting with someone she had no chance with this entire time? No, surely she hadn’t. He’d definitely been into her, hadn’t he? He’d definitely flirted back.

“There’s another thing to know about me,” Ben explained with a laugh, then she heard his hand fall flat on his thigh. “I’m bisexual.”

“Oh,” she breathed, then she turned her hand over beneath his, and laced their fingers together. “Are you also single? Or are you still seeing the guy from the Empire State Building?”

“I’m single.” 

_ He said that rather quickly, didn’t he?  _ Rey’s brain helpfully supplied. She shifted, attempting to maintain an air of nonchalance as she spoke, “Good, me too.”

Ben fell quiet for a moment, and Rey froze.  _ Shit, was that too far?  _ Had she just overstepped a boundary? Was he not interested in her anyway even if he liked women? Her relief came a second later when he finally laughed, and she felt him lean a little further into her. “Rey, you don’t even know what I look like.”

“I have an idea.” Without missing a beat, she recited the details he’d given her earlier, and reminded him that she did  _ kind of  _ know what he looked like, then she sighed. “But I don’t care. I think…” Taking in a deep breath, she summoned the traces of courage scattered throughout her brain. “I think you’re funny, charming, have great wit, and you’re not bad company to be trapped in a lift with.”

He chuckled. “You said lift.”

“Ben, I’m being serious, I don’t care what happens when the lights come on.” Carefully, very, very carefully, she reached up a hand, and moved it forward until she felt it resting against a smooth cheek. He shivered beneath her touch, and she knew it wasn’t from the temperature in the lift. “You want to go get a drink when we’re free? Maybe one up that encounter in the Empire State Building If we’ve got time?”

“... where have you been all my life?”

“London, then Philadelphia.”

He made a clicking noise with his tongue. “What a shame, I was in fuck-ass, Illinois.”

“Well, I’m here now, and we’ve got—we’ve got god knows how long until they get us out of here…” she shifted forward again, allowing her free hand to come up, and rest on his other cheek. “And I don’t know about you, but I’m really fucking bored.”

“Me too.”

“You want to help me pass the time?” she asked, hoping— _ praying _ —that her message was clear. 

Lucky for her, it was. “We can’t even see each other. This is going to be a disaster.”

“Yeah, it’ll take a bit of trial and error, but hell, every song is about turning the lights down low and putting your hands everywhere.” She shrugged, and dropped her hands down to his broad shoulders. “The lights are already off.”

He wheezed his laughter, then she heard his head tilt back to meet the wall. “God, I want to, I really fucking want to, but I don’t have a condom.”

“Guess we’ll have to do something else, then.” With a shaky inhale, Rey let one of her legs slide over one of his. “Once we figure out how to do it without injuring each other, that is.”

They both laughed awkwardly at this, then she felt one of Ben’s hands rest on her waist, snaking around the underside of her blazer to press firmly into her back, and bring her chest right up against his side. Chills ran through her body even though the lift was saturated with July heat, and she shivered as she felt that stupidly large hand of his spread out over her spine. “I want you to know, I’m perfectly fine doing whatever you want.” Another hand found her jaw, and she felt herself growing embarrassingly wet the longer he kept touching her. He hadn’t even put his hands on her properly yet, and she was already reacting to him like this.  _ Who the hell is this guy?  _ “But I have to ask you one small favor first.”

“Anything.” And god, she shouldn’t have said that, but after at least an hour in the elevator, after enduring one another’s panic attacks, and learning some of the less pleasant part of their lives, he’d earned a bit of trust with Rey. After all, if he pulled anything weird, he wouldn’t exactly be able to get away so easily. 

“Kiss me,” he whispered, and she felt his breath ghost over her lips, causing her to shake even further as she let her hands slide up the back of his neck, and into his hair. 

“Okay,” she breathed, then she let one hand come down to his jaw, and began guiding herself forward, and closing her eyes well in advance. It wasn’t like she needed her vision until the last second like she usually did with her kisses anyway. The blindfold was already on, and all she had to do was close the distance. 

At some point, he too began to lean forward to meet her in the middle, and just as they started getting closer, just as she started feeling the warmth of his skin radiating to hers, he giggled again. “Sorry.”

“What’s so funny?”

“Just… if I kiss your nose, or your chin, or something? Don’t laugh.”

“Fuck, I was thinking the same thing, cause if you kiss my nose then that means I’m left kissing your chin and vice versa,” she said, then she paused, and shifted the hand she had on his jaw until her thumb swiped gently across his lower lip. “Ah, there it is.”

“I—I should’ve thought of that and kept my mouth shut.”

A quiet snort escaped her, then she swiped her thumb over his lip again. “You have very full lips, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess. I’ve never really thought about it.” He sounded almost disappointed, and he really didn’t need to. Going by what she felt beneath the pad of her thumb, Ben had excellent lips, and she couldn’t wait to kiss them. 

“Ben, they're perfect.”

“Thanks, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to find out what yours feel like with mine instead of my finger.”

“Believe me, I am  _ delighted _ .”

He gave her one last, quiet snicker in response, then her breath hitched as she felt him shift forward abruptly, and his lips were finally on hers. 

If she’d thought they felt nice beneath her thumb, they felt like something straight out of heaven against her lips. That and the fact that Ben kissed her slowly yet sensually has her thoughts moving at a million miles an hour. Everything was moving too fast for her to process internally as reality moved in slow motion. All she could think intermittently was,  _ soft _ and occasionally  _ holy shit _ followed by what she could only describe as a warm burst of euphoria that scattered throughout her entire body. 

Without breaking the kiss, Ben wrapped a second arm around her waist, and pulled her into his lap. Catching onto his intent, Rey turned as he moved her so that her body was facing him, and her legs rested on either side of his, straddling him properly as if they weren’t doing this on the floor of a fancy hotel elevator. Once she was settled, she let her hands drift back up into his hair, threading her fingers through the waves—and  _ fuck,  _ his hair was soft—reveling in the feeling of kissing him. 

The whole thing sent a thrill running through her body. She didn’t know what he looked like. Sure, she had some vague idea based on what he’d told her, but no description ever rendered a perfect image. People always imagined something at least slightly different from what the descriptor was saying, and so she bet that what Ben looked like was distorted in her mind, changed to match the face of someone she’d met or seen that most closely resembled what he’d told her. Right now, she was effectively picturing making out with a more curly-haired Keanu Reeves, but she had a feeling Ben wasn’t exactly like that. 

Before her thoughts could get too lost in what Ben looked like, Rey pulled away briefly for air, then went back in for another kiss as she shifted in his lap, her pencil skirt hiking up as she felt his erection pressing up against the apex of her thighs. A soft groan escaped her into the kiss, but he made no sound, which she understood perfectly well. Ordinarily, she didn’t make much noise during sex or even during kissing. Years upon years of living in a house where noise carried and masturbation had do be done soundlessly had taught her to loathe making noises whenever the pleasure of it got to be too much. Rare, rare exceptions were made to the silent rule, and Ben had somehow just made one. 

If she were to bet money, though, she’d guess he was the same way. Testing her theory, Rey ground down on him, and though he broke the kiss for a split second to gasp, no pleasured moan left his lips. They were exactly alike, she realized, two peas in a weird ass fucking pod. 

Increasing the speed at which she was grinding against his erection, though, her natural talent for keeping quiet started to fail her, and she found herself breaking away to gasp for air. All that did, though, was give Ben’s lips access to her neck, and after one awkward, misaimed kiss to her hair, he began to leave searing, open mouthed kisses to her skin. At one point, she felt him leave a mark on the column of her throat that her coworkers would definitely see once she got out of that stupid fucking elevator. 

“Ben, people are gonna see that,” she breathed as he pulled away. 

“Let them,” he replied, his voice low as he went back in for more, and left a second mark closer to the line of her clothing. 

She was certainly going to have to get him back for  _ that.  _ Using the grip she had in his hair, she tugged his hair back, exposing his neck somewhere beneath her. A small prayer left her lips that she didn’t miss him in the darkness, but luckily she managed to find his neck just fine. A soft little moan escaped him as she began sucking a mark into his neck while somehow grinding harder onto his erection, and the sound went straight between her legs, making her wonder if he could feel just how wet she was through the layers of clothing that still separated them. 

“How close are you?” Ben asked a few seconds later, his voice sounding almost strained. 

She shuddered as she thrust against him again, then she took in a heavy gasp of air. “Could be closer.”

One of Ben’s hands slipped down to her thighs, and began pushing the hem of her already hiked up skirt further along her toned muscle. “Fuck, you have nice legs,” he whispered, then before she could thank him his hand was cupping her ass and she lost all train of thought as he thrust his hips up into her. 

“God damn, Ben.” She laughed, suddenly feeling much, much closer than she had been a second ago. “Where have you been all my life?”

“Are we really going to keep repeating ourselves?” 

“Yeah, you’re right, sor— _ fuck! _ ” Right then, she started to feel her orgasm building, the sensations he was bringing her almost overwhelming. The feeling was aided by the dark. No visuals meant everything else was heightened, and it had been the entire time. Every tiny sound, every single thing she felt was intensified by a thousand, and thus every pleasurable feeling was intensified. 

A few seconds later, she gasped loudly, the sound seeming to echo off the walls of the elevator as she came, and waves of pleasure shot through her. Ben moaned as she came on top of him, and as her head tilted back, his face buried itself in the juncture of her neck and shoulder as he muffled a small cry, and she knew he’d followed quickly after her. 

They came down from their highs together, both panting hard but making minimal noise as they slowly halted their movements, and Rey’s hands began to gently stroke his hair. “Holy fuck,” she breathed. 

“Yeah.” _ Pant _ . “I was,”  _ pant  _ “thinking the same,”  _ pant,  _ “thing.”

“You out of breath there, Ben?”

“Mmm, a bit,”  _ pant, “ _ yeah.”

Rey giggled, then she leaned forward, preparing to kiss him again. “Does this beat your Empire State Building experience?”

“Oh yeah, by a long shot.” He laughed, then she felt hands cupping her waist. “I think the possibility of this elevator dropping all the way down the shaft and killing us somehow made it more thrilling.”

“Jesus Christ, you’ve got a bit of a morbid side, don’t you?”

“You were thinking it too, right?”

“A little but I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Alright, well stop being judgmental and kiss me again, we still don’t know how much time we have left.”

“So bossy,” she grumbled, but she obeyed him, kissing Ben thoroughly on the mouth before he could come up with a clever retort. 

The kiss was soft, and not nearly as intense as those that had come before it, but it quickly became the most important one they’d shared yet. Just as Rey’s tongue began to press into his mouth, just as his hand resumed its grip on her ass, and just as they began to reignite the fire that had kept them going during the first round, she suddenly saw a blinding light fill her eyelids, and the lift jolted before it began moving down. 

They both pulled away immediately, eyes blinking into the light for a few seconds as the lift began its descent, then they looked at each other, and she saw him light up as he looked at her for the first time. With a smile on his face, Ben’s hand abandoned her ass, and brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “Beautiful,” he breathed, causing a blush to rise to her cheeks that she knew he saw. 

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she told him, giving him a proper once over.  _ Shit _ , Ben was attractive. Sure, he wasn’t good looking in a conventional manner, but he was so striking that Rey was honestly blown away by everything about him—especially his kiss swollen lips.  _ God,  _ she’d been the one to do that to him, and she’d never been more proud of herself. 

“You’re just saying that to be nice,” he grumbled, but he was still smiling as his cheeks turned pink. “And because I just made you come within an inch of your life.”

Snorting her laughter, Rey shook her head. “The second part is true, but no. I think—I  _ know— _ I like what I see.”

He looked thoroughly flustered as she rolled off of him, sitting down beside him again as she adjusted her skirt back down to its appropriate place in the middle of her thigh. “Then I guess I should say, ‘thank you’ and buy you a drink.”

“I'd like that very much,” she told him with a nod, then she froze, remembering the reason she’d been stuck on the lift in the first place. “Oh my god, I’m probably hours late to my meeting.”

“I’m sure they’ll understand,” Ben assured her, then she felt him squeeze her hand, and she looked down at where their hands were joined, confirming visually just how enormous his were. “And we’ve been here for at least two hours.”

“I missed the meeting entirely…” Rey’s vision effectively went blank, but the panic attack she thought would follow never came. “Fuck, I’m going to be in so much trouble.”

“I promise, you’re not. If you are, then I am too.” Ben shifted so that he was facing her as the elevator slowed its descent, indicating that they were getting close to the ground. “Rey, don’t worry. We’ll get out of here, charge your phone, and you’ll explain what happened to your boss, who I’m positive will tell you you’re fine, and maybe we’ll get that drink.”

“Oh, we’re getting that drink either way,” she promised him, then they both laughed as she squeezed his hand. “It’s good to see your face.”

“Yeah, the view’s nice,” he replied, then she smacked him in the chest, causing the man beside her to laugh at his own joke while she rolled her eyes. 

“I’m glad you think you’re so funny,” she told him, then she began to stand up, holding onto his hand the entire time as she stood shakily on her high-heeled shoes. “Come on, people will look at us funny if we’re sitting down when the doors open.”

Ben groaned, but allowed her to help him to his feet as the lift dinged its arrival on the lobby floor, and the doors finally opened. With one last glance in his direction, she cocked her head toward the outside world, and grinned. “Ready to get that drink?”

“Yeah, but I just have one request when we’re done,” he replied as they walked into the well-lit lobby of their hotel. 

“Anything.”

A grin parted his lips as he leaned down to whisper in her ear, “... we’re taking the stairs on the way back.”


End file.
